Giving rules a miss,MLAs corner prized Mumbai apartments

Last August,the state government issued orders to allot them apartments,for which lakhs apply when MHADA conducts a public lottery,constructed in the upmarket suburb of Versova. But only after the applicants gave a written undertaking that none of them owned a house in Mumbai.

Now as the allotment process was about to begin,MHADA found that many among the applicants owned houses in the city and some of them had even declared it in their affidavits submitted to the Election Commission before the October 2009 Assembly elections.

An exact number of such violators was being determined as it required checking the 203 applications and verifying them with affidavits of the serving members,officials said. However,with the chief minister having approved the allotments,over half of the 203 applicants have already made the initial payment to MHADA.

The flats will be available to them at MHADAs affordable rates of Rs 42 lakh each while their market value is twice that. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was due to personally hand over the keys to some of the allottees later this week.

According to documents and affidavits accessed by The Indian Express,many among the high profile members of Rajyog,starting with Patil,already own one or more houses in the city. Patil,for instance,owns an apartment in Shubhada in upmarket Worli.

Shubhada is a housing society of MLAs and MLCs who were given land at concessional rates to construct flats of over 1,000 sq ft each. Other prominent politicians such as Nitin Raut and Aneez Ahmad,the incumbent and former Dairy Development Minister respectively,Sudhakar Paricharak,Chairman,Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation,and MLA Sevakbhau Waghaye Patil from Bhandara district,also own flats in Shubhada.

All four have also applied for flats in Rajyog. Rauts affidavit says that he also owns a Rs 80 lakh apartment in Andheri. Another Rajyog member,Mumbai MLA Bhai Jagtap from Khetwadi,owns an apartment in Dubai.

Though his Dubai house may have no bearing on his claim to the MHADA flat,the fact that he and his wife own five flats in Mumbai three of these in the tony suburb of Bandra certainly makes him ineligible. Yet another member,Higher and Technical Education Minister Rajesh Tope,has a total of 10 houses in Pune,Jalna and Aurangabad and one in Mumbai.

If the MLAs who have applied for a flat in Versova already own homes in Mumbai,we will start an enquiry and verify the documents, MHADA Chief Vigilance Officer Jawahar Singh told The Indian Express. If found guilty,criminal proceedings can be initiated against the applicants and they can be booked under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code on charges of cheating,he said.

Reached for his comments,Co-operation Minister Patil said that he is only the chief promoter of Rajyog and that he has not asked for an apartment. Whatever is done is as per rules. It is not upon me to verify if the members already own a flat or not,that is MHADAs responsibility, he said. The chief minister has only given in-principle clearance,the final allotment is yet to be done.